Coaches convene for county’s annual media day

It may be true that time heals all wounds, but North Marion head football coach Craig Damon can still feel the sting of last season’s district championship loss to Gainesville Eastside.

By Andy MarksStaff writer

It may be true that time heals all wounds, but North Marion head football coach Craig Damon can still feel the sting of last season’s district championship loss to Gainesville Eastside.That game, a dramatic but gut-wrenching 42-41 setback in overtime, ended a streak of nine straight district titles for Damon’s Colts, and it left a sour taste in mouths across Marion County’s Northside.“Making the playoffs is not the standard at North Marion High School,” Damon said Saturday at the annual Marion County Football Media Day held at the Ocala Hilton. “It’s winning a district title, playing for a regional title and trying to find a way to play for a state title, those are our goals. For a lot of schools, last year would’ve been a great year, but not for North Marion. Our standards are high and our kids expect more.”Damon has been the driving force behind Media Day, now in its fourth year as the unofficial launch of high school football season in which schools from Marion County and around the region meet with newspaper, radio, television and online media.“It’s a win-win situation for not only the high schools, but also for the media outlets,” Damon said.Damon was joined by eight other Marion County head coaches Saturday including two first-year coaches in Forest’s Skip Austin and West Port’s Russell Holley.Austin is already a well-known local coach with deep roots at Forest, while Holley moved in from South Carolina to lead the Wolf Pack.The rest of the county’s coaches are familiar faces, including Belleview veteran Phillip Yancey who enters this season with higher expectations than the past three seasons.The Rattlers, 3-7 a year ago, enter the season with a host of returning talent and ranked No. 5 in the county.“We’ve got a chance to be competitive,” Yancey said. “If you look at our scores for the last three years, they’ve become more competitive against some of the top teams in our district.”Vanguard, one of two teams along with Trinity Catholic to venture two rounds deep into the playoffs last season, has high hopes once again in Alex Castaneda’s fifth year at the helm.The Knights tied at No. 2 in the preseason Star-Banner Power Poll rankings, but that’s something Castaneda doesn’t concern himself with.“I don’t even read (preseason predictions),” he said. “What’s important is where you are at the end of the season.”

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